Romans 9:22-33

What do Satan and a crooked politician have in common?  Both want you to believe life is a zero sum game.  They want you to believe that there is a fixed and limited supply of everything good.  If you believe that, they can manipulate your feelings.  They can get you to feel jealous, covetous, hateful, and envious.  When something good happens in someone else’s life, they want you to feel cheated.  If someone else has more money, they will tell you it is unfair.  Once they control your emotions, they will begin to control your behavior.  Once you begin to feel bad about others experiencing good, you will begin to act bad.  Crooked politicians want to manipulate you to get your vote.  Satan wants to manipulate you to gain your soul/life.

Satan was working hard in the lives of the Jews who were considering faith in Jesus.  He wanted them to believe, that if God loved the gentiles, it meant he had less love to give the Jews.  He wanted them to believe there was only so much grace to go around and if the unworthy received it, there would not be enough left for them.  God’s plan was for the Jewish nation to become a blessing to the whole world and instead they sought to hoard for themselves God’s love.  It was not only that they were greedy, they were also fearful and self-righteous.  It is natural, if we believe that we have earned the good that we receive, to believe we are in control.  They had set about earning righteousness, and had become even more unrighteous as a result.

Life is not a zero sum game.  God created the whole universe out of nothing.  God’s goodness will never be in short supply.  The greater our need, the greater God’s love meets our need.  God’s offer of redemption was never for either the Jews or the gentiles.  It was always for everyone who will believe.  No one, who believes in him, will ever be put to shame.